Thank you, Mr. Chair.
There's a bit of folklore that says don't feel too bad about your mistakes because at least you serve as a bad example for others. Here we see the Liberals have made mistakes. We learned from those mistakes by making a very decisive move on the issue of income trusts. This move, I might add, was made entirely privately, without sending signals to some people and not to others.
The Liberals have not learned from their mistakes. That is kind of ironic, I guess you'd have to say. I think the biggest concern I have is that this has re-injected a very disturbing and alarming note of doubt and instability into this very key issue, and it is going to hurt investors again. It is going to hurt the economic sector again.
In the normal course of business, the committee, as we've acknowledged, will be looking at the legislation that will come about as a result of the ways and means motion that was passed by the House of Commons. The legislation is well on track. The government has been very quick off the mark on this. The legislation was posted on the website. It is there for public input and stakeholder input. As Ms. Wasylycia-Leis has said, this input process will end on January 31. The bill will then be tweaked by the minister and the department in light of that input, responding to the concerns and the input of various stakeholders, and then introduced in the House.
It is difficult to know why there would be this rush to hear witnesses when we don't have the legislation before us. One can only assume that it is because politics is being played with this, and that's fair enough--we're politicians. But it is not fair that the uncertainty in the market is being re-ignited. That is harmful. Surely my honourable colleague, who is a former minister of revenue, would know this.
With respect to this purported concern about numbers, we have numbers coming out from a number of governments, including our government, from our Department of Finance, and from provincial governments that are talking about tax losses because of the trust situation for them.
Again, my colleague, as a former minister, a former member of cabinet, a former revenue minister, had the very same numbers before him when his government waffled and went back and forth and finally dropped the ball and botched the issue on income trusts. There's been no change in the numbers. If they were good enough for the old Liberal government, why are they suddenly suspect now? The numbers have simply increased because there has been an additional $70 billion in trust conversion since we took office, which no one anticipated was going to happen.
The fact of the matter is that nothing is being hidden. These numbers were well known to the Liberals. They were known to the Liberals for longer than they were known to us, I might add. Of course there are going to be people willing to challenge numbers. There always are people willing to challenge numbers, but that doesn't mean that there's some need to suggest there's skulduggery or that we need to get to the truth, as if something were being hidden. These numbers have been out, and they are the same numbers that every government has had in the past.
I really believe that it's very clear that the government is on track. The legislation is on the website for everybody to see. The government will be introducing it as soon as possible, certainly before the budget comes down, and the committee will be studying this issue.
If the committee wishes to hear witnesses before we even have legislation in front of us, then I think we should, in fairness, re-inject the certainty into this situation that is so necessary so that everyone can know what they're dealing with.
I would like to propose an amendment to the motion, as follows:
Notwithstanding the Standing Committee on Finance's support for the Ways and Means Motion No. 10, adopted by the House of Commons on November 7, 2006, which includes, first of all, a distribution tax on distributions from publicly traded income trusts and limited partnerships; second, for existing income trusts and limited partnerships, a four-year transition period; third, a reduction in the general corporate income tax rate of one-half percentage point as of January 1, 2011; fourth, an increase in the age credit amount by $1,000, from $4,066 to $5,066, effective January 1, 2006, benefiting low- and middle-income seniors; and lastly, income splitting for pensioners beginning in 2007; the committee agrees, in the next 30 sitting days, to hold one three-hour meeting to hear evidence from witnesses on the government's tax fairness plan and the economic and fiscal consequences of the transformation of a growing number of taxable corporations into income trusts.
Mr. Chairman, I think this would make certain what the committee's intentions are, and would be important to make clear that there is continued support for the decisive announcement that was made on this issue. I think it's critical that this committee make it clear that is not going to change, Mr. Chairman.